British Aircraft paint code numbers – please help?

Hello Dave,
some wartime colours still exist in the British Standards paint range, and as such must match the original standard. So it may be worth while contacting them.
http://www.bsonline.bsi-global.com/server/contact.jsp

Just a thought.

Dave

Thanks guys. That’s cleare up the green, but the yellow is a puzzle.

I already had the FS 33538 number, but surely there must have been a British number? Or was all trainer yellow paint sourced from the USA??

Aircraft like Tiger Moths, Magisters, Oxfords and many others were made in the UK. Surely they must have used locally sourced paint which would have come under the British Standard?

What do they use these days? At Shuttleworth, IWM, and other collections? Do you have the paint mixed to a BS 381c number? Or do you actually use a FS 595 standard when getting the supplier to mix the paint? I always found it odd I cannot find the BS number.

Thanks anyway guys.

colours

Hi
Dooh,
yur right didn’t read the table caption,
in that case the only reference to yellow is FS 595 33538
my apoligies for the mix up.
cheers
Jerry

just a point – I think the 170 & 171 are stores references relating to 4 pint and 1 gallon tins of a matt yellow cellulose paint, the 178 & 179, are stores references relating to 4 pint and 1 gallon tins of a matt yellow synthetic paint, and 344 is the stores reference for a 5 gallon tin of matt yellow synthetic paint.

Therefore these are probably all supply variations – in terms of tin size and/or composition- of the same Identification/Trainer Yellow.

The yellow primer is probably some sort of zinc chromate primer.

colours

Hi
SAM C&M No:2 pg 85 lists :-

dark green BS381c No241 – FS 595B 34079

states pg 88
later in the war , the bulletin 41 colour, dark olive green replaced dark green on american aircraft supplied to britain under lease lend .
sorry no info on trainer yellow , it just quotes six yellows,
170/171 , matt cellulose paints
178/179 , matt synthetic paints
344, matt synthetic paint
213 yellow primer

hope it all helps
cheers
jerry

Thanks Jeepman

Colours

This might be a good starting point…

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_uk.htm

as might this…

http://www.indfinspec.demon.co.uk/bs_381c_colour_chart.htm

I don’t think that trainer yellow has a BS381c equivalent, possibly because 356 golden yellow, was as near as damn it.

The man to speak to on the equivalent colours used on US export aircraft such as the Hudson is Dana Bell – he has written what is probably the definitive monograph on the subject entitled Aviation Color Primers No. 1: US Export Colors of WWII

HTH

sk